Mobile operating systems typically include mechanisms by which applications can send notifications to the user. These notifications alert the user of application events, and can include information from or descriptive of the application event. For instance, notifications are commonly used to inform the user of a new text message, email, social network post, or other such application events.
When a mobile device is locked, notifications may be shown on a mobile device's lock-screen, prior to the device being unlocked. If such lock-screen notifications reveal sensitive or private information, they can present a privacy and/or security risk; potentially allowing anyone who has physical (or perhaps just visual) access to the phone to learn this information, without providing any sort of authentication (e.g., a password, swipe pattern, or fingerprint scan).
Some existing lock-screen notification solutions provide users the option to obscure information in lock-screen notifications by hiding all event content, and displaying only a description of the type of application event or events that occurred. For example, if a user has not selected an option to obscure notifications for a text-message application, the notification for a new text message might indicate the sender of the text message and/or preview the text from the message itself. However, if a user has selected an option to obscure information in notifications, the lock-screen notification for a text-message application might simply say “You have 3 new messages” without any indication of content of those text messages, or who the sender(s) of the text messages are.